The present invention relates to a method of setting a relaying path in a communication network and, more particularly, to a method of setting a relaying path in a communication network when communicating by using an asynchronous transfer mode.
Conventionally, local area networks (LANs), such as the Ethernet (based on IEEE 802.3) and the token ring system (based on IEEE 802.5), are known and used to perform data communication in a limited and relatively small area, such as inside a building or a building site.
Meanwhile, in view of a network of the next generation, an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), a simplified protocol, has been developed aimed for multimedia and high speed data transmission, and the standardization of ATM has been discussed. In the ATM technique, information to be sent is divided into fixed-sized (53 bytes) blocks, and each of the blocks is made into an ATM cell, then the ATM cells are sent out sequentially. Thereby, it is possible to reduce exchange delay while keeping high transmission efficiency as in the conventional packet exchange.
As a communication system using the ATM technique, a technique to use an ATM exchange apparatus for communication in a public network has been developed, and an ATM-LAN has also been developed, applied with the ATM, capable of dealing with a multi-media information, although it is in a small scale.
The conventional LAN capable of dealing with static data, such as text data, exists and is used separately from the ATM-LAN for multi-media capable of dealing with a dynamic data, such as sound and an image. However, there is a prospect that the conventional LAN and the ATM-LAN coexist and are used together. In such a case, it is expected that there will be a demand for realizing a system in which a protocol for the LAN, such as the Ethernet, is used for communication between communication terminals, whereas ATM-LAN is used at the transfer unit so as to speed up the exchange process.
Therefore, in order to effectively realize the aforesaid system, it is necessary to adjust between a relaying path setting (routing), using a conventional protocol for LAN, such as the Ethernet, and establishment of a virtual path on the ATM network.